faus facing an onslaught. >> big storm coming up. >> super storm sandy lashes the northeast stopping business, travel and the presidential election campaign. people in the u.s. northeast are looking out their windows and seeing the blurry images of a storm that's headed their way.

weather experts have downgraded hurricane sandy to a post tropical cycne but it' inging high winds and pelting rain to people up and down the coast. two people are missing after a ship soff of north carolina. several municipalities have declared a state of emergency. the storm is unusually large. it's expected to cut across ne jersey over thxt several hours. electricity.0 houses have lost back obama made a direct appeal to people in the hurricane's path. >> the most important message that i have for the publicight now islease listen t wt your state and local officials are saying. when they tell you to evacuate, you need to evacuate. >> 370,000 new yorkers who live close to the water have already left. city officials have shut down

the transit system. businesses and shops have closed. workers are piling up sand bags in front of subway entrances and buildings. >> it's vr important. this is the stop the water from gog into the subway. >> irene last year didn't look like this after it hit. >> they expect the storm will pound a wide area for several days. >> sandy has interacted with cold air from the north and it's become a post tropical cyclone. it's not a tropical cyclone anymore but the field of heavy rain and strong winds are expanding and things will get even worse bause the center of a former hurricane sandy is expected to move into the new jersey coast. extremely dangerous storm surge combined with high tide could cause flooding. that's why hundreds of thousands

of people have been ordered to evacuate. it's going to move through pennsylvania into new york city. rain will spread as much as 2000 millimeters with 300 millimeters possibly into wednesday. temperatures are on the chilly side. look at this only 8 degrees in washington, d.c. 10 degrees in philadelphia. lots of heavy know is occurring along the appalachians. we'll will joined later on in the program for more of our updates. president obama and republican challenger mitt romney hav cancelled their campaign appearances. obama returned to the white house after calling off a

campaign stop in the u.s. state of florida just three hours before it was to start. earlier he san selled events in virginia and ohio. obama said he's not worried that the hurricane will affect the election next tuesday. former president bill clinton was in orlando, florida to rally support. clinton said obama is the best choice for president. romney cancelled vents in on monday. he issued a statement calling on people to come together across the country and focus on giving support to those who need it. the two states are not in sandy's path but observers say romney did not want to appear to be koe kusing on the campaign in the midst of a potential national disaster. u.n. and arab league envoy says the truce he brokered in syria for a holiday period has collapsed. syria's government and opposition forces agreed to stop

all attacks which started last friday. the fighting has continued leaving many people dead. the he said he's deeply disappointed but will not be deterred. >> it will not discourage us. the people of syria deserve our support and our interest. >> russian forn says he supports a plan to sd inspectors back to syria. they're considering expanding the team of observers. the previous team left in august after a cease-fire at that time failed. the new york times reported last thursday that the family accrued assets worth about $2.7 billion. the newspaper says the wealth includes shares of major

insurance firms. a lawyer issued a statement rejecting the accusations. any illegal business activities and have no hidden riches. the claims were fabricated abroord. >> translator: some members of the international community are trying to create instability by smearing china and its leaders. >> some high ranking officials are not required to disclose their assets to the public.

people who work in finance in japan are joining us. what investors are waiting to here? >> investors and traders are waing in fnt of their scree 're w hearing that japan central bank plans to ease credit further to tackle deflation and support the economy. bank of japan officials are seen

on tuesday to decide on extra monetary easing for a second month in a row. high on the agenda is the purchase of an asset purchase program. officials will discuss if they need to clarify the timing for reaching a goal of 1% inflation. let's check on the markets now. u.s. exchanges are closed as they batted down for the storm so let's look at some numbers and see how stocks here in japan are opening this tuesday. we go to ramin who is at the tokyo stock exchange. how are stocks kicking off ts >> very good morning. let's have a look at some of the data that came out.

unemployment coming at 4.2%. that's unchanged. we did have preliminary industrial production that came at minus 4.1%. that's the third consecutive month of declines there. there's relating to the industrial production part of it. there is a big focus on how tokyo will trad both indexes are trading higher this tuesday, october 30th and both indexes as you can see on the screen up in the first few minutes of trading. investors will see what the bank of japan will do as it convenes its meeting today and what the governor of the bank will say at the news conference following that meeting. market expectations are for an increase in the boj's asset buying program which includes fu things as al estate

nds. the yen will be closely watched for any science of depreciation following that meeting. let's have a look at the currency levels on the screen. 79.76 to 79 and the euro yen 102.94 to 99. the yen really is going to be closelywatcd. >> what's the latest on the earnings stream? >> a lot of earnings. we've been focused on export relates. july to september group net profits showed a small gain due to fixed income trading. it's going through severe cost cutting measures as well as

internal management infrastructure and losses to investment banki structure. still a lot of folks on the alle details. just checking the price action today it's up 3%. markets taking it as a bit of a positive. back to you. >> thanks. people running japan's local governments may so beurning out their pockets for loose ange afterational government officials say they will postpone the payment of tax grants. the move comes as it looks increasingly unlikely to pass a bill to issue deficit covering bonds. the main opposition parties are against it. the bonds are necessary to implement the budget. government officials say they

could run out of money by the end of november unless it's passed. it was scheduled on friday to allocate $27 billion to prefectures and $24 billion to municipalitie municipalities. some tax grants due in september have already been deferred. people in cash strapped municipalities can expect the latest delay to expect financing and disrupt public services. that's all for me for now. i'll leave you with the markets this tuesday here in asia.

the discussion included disputed islands in the south china sea. they agree to continue talks to establish a declaration of conduct with their will to resolve the issue peacefully. countries have been asking china to agree to a legal biding code of conduct governing behavior in the disputed region. they have failed to reach substantial progress over the issue. china has been reluctant to establish a code of conduct despite the urging of the united states. the focus is now on bl the relevant countries will bridge their differencest a series of summits nex month. spokespe are no plans for direct talks

with japan's leaders. relations between the countries have soured. china and taiwan also claim the islands. if summit is scheduled to open next monday. japaneserimeinisr i alady considering attending. there's fo plano plans for the s to meet. >> translator: japan should immediately correct i wants mistakes. make an effort to remove obstacles to improving relations. >> observers say that chinese government sees the summit as a chance to protetstance to

the international community. mpb buddhists are fighting a muslim minority. >> reporter: the conflict involves majority buddhists and minority muslims. local authorities say the latest wave of violence has killed 84 people and wounded more than 120 others. the international group human rights watch released satellite images of muslim homes in the area. compared with photos from march, they review heavy damage. the latest fighting has forced more than 22,000 people from their homes.

the conflict started in may after a group of muslims allegedly assaulted a buddhist woman. the violence has displaced 75,000 people since then. reconciliation with ethnic minorities was a condition. the administration is fighting that the. the issue is more complicated. many buddhists think of muslim as intruders.

the opposition leader also has not mentioned the issue. the efforts at democratic reform and promoting human rights are still in a formative stage. the government's response to this humanitarian cris will have a big impact on this international standing. all three main candidates took part in a meeting of small business owners in seoul. it was the first time the main contenders have appeared at the

same event. policies to support small businesses have become a focal point of the campaign. all three candidates promise the same thing,o tighten control over large firms. they all promise support for small businesses. some observers noted they could not find any significant differences between the candidates policies. with 50 days to go before the election the candidates are expected to outline their policies further. tokyo's newly refurbishe rail stion was unveil at the beginning of the month. the station's rebirth has a

deeper significance. >> reporter: the red brick building of tokyo station. it's been restored to the way it looked when it was first built a century ago. it's now covered with tiles. they are made of natural material. when the station was originally built in 1914, the celebrate covering the roofs all came from the town in miyagi prefecture. the railway company decided to use slate from there again.

the massive earthquake hit the region. ogatsu was the first hit by the tsunami. the entire building, 20,000 slates were washed away. amazingly many slates survived, intact. after the disastere was the first on the scene. he found slates all covered with debris and caked in mud. he was convinced they were still usable. >> translator: it's a miracle they survived the tsunami because tokyo station is a japanese icon, i really wanted slated from ogatsu to be used on

it. >> reporter: after the disaster there's no air or running water. all the slates were washed down by hand. finally, they managed to ship the slates off to tokyo. one by one the slates were carefully put into place on the new station proof. back in ogatsu the slates had been moved but the town has a long way to go to bounce back from the disaster.

local people are slowly starting to rebuild their lives. he's now busy working on a new house. it's the first time since the tsunami that he's been asked to use slate produced in ogatsu. >> translator: i'm really grateful to have been part of this kind of work. i think we are taking strong steps towards rebuilding. >> reporter: he has made a visit to tokyo to look at the station. >> translator: it's wonderful. i feel overwhelmed. we feel proud that o slate has been used here. many people will see this roof. it's given us the hope and energy to move forward one step

at a time. >> reporter: for communities in the disaster area the rebirth of tokyo station is an inspiration. it's time now to check the latest in weather. earlier weaw how super storm sandis aecting people along the eastern coast of the united states. we're joined with a look at how conditions are in other parts of the world. >> parts of southern china have been dealing with heavy rain. this is due to remnants of the typhoon. about 200 millimeters of rain has been recorded inarts of the province.

the out towards the west a deep depression has formed east of ssri lanka. it will move over toward india toward the northwest over the next several days. as for the rest of east asia it's dry. a new system moves in from the sea of japan. thunderstorms and gusty winds are possibly. out towards the west a new system will form. that will be producing rain across seoul for tonight. looking at 14 degrees the beijing. it will continue to go down as we're heading to the next several days. the high on sunday is expected

to be only 6degrees. 12 degren tokyo. seasonal temperatures with high of 19 degrees. let's go to the americas. tropical cyclone sandy has made landfall in new jersey and it's continuing to move inland. very strong winds. sandy has a wintry aspect. it's also producing a mixture of rain and snow in the great lakes region and significant snowfall for the aplachians. warnings are posted here. conditions are ideal for wildfires particular in florida, alabama and georgia. out towards the northwest a chain of low pressure system has opinion bringing strong winds and mountain snow. the canadian rockies may see as

much as 30 centimeters of snow. getting up to 25 in los angeles, 24 in houston. temperatures very chilly. look at this only 9 degrees in chicago. 13 in toronto and 8 degrees in washington, d.c. it will be much cooler than these actual numbers. here is the extended forecast.

>> that's all for this edition of "newsline." thanks very much for joining us.